Eurostat – Household spending in the EU in 2020 – What did the Greeks do?

In 2020, ‘Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ represented more than a quarter (25.7%) of EU household expenditure, up by 2.2 percentage points (pp) compared to 2019. ‘Food and non-alcoholic beverages’ ( +1.8 pp) and ‘Furnishings and household equipment’ (+0.5 pp) also recorded increases among household expenditure categories, representing 14.8% and 6.0% respectively of total expenditure in 2020, according to a recent survey by Eurostat.

These increases are consistent with lockdown and mobility control measures related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the EU Member States. The restrictions apparently also had an impact on other items, most notably on ‘Restaurants and hotels’ (-2.7 pp), ‘Transport’ (-1.5 pp) and ‘Recreation and culture’ (-0.9 pp), with these categories representing 6.0 %, 11.6% and 7.8% respectively of total expenditure in 2020.

In Greece

Households in Greece spent 23.1% of their total spending on “housing, water and energy”, compared to 25.7% of the EU average and then 19.4% on “food and non-alcoholic beverages” , well above the EU average (14.8%).

The difference in the average expenditure of a Greek household as a percentage of the total is remarkable, compared to the EU average in the category “restaurants-hotels”, where in Greece the average is higher by 4.3 points (10.3% ) compared to the European average (6%).

On the contrary, in Greece the average expenditure for leisure and entertainment was in 2020 at 4.8% of the total expenditure of a household, when in the EU it was 7.8%.